Lasers are scanned for a variety of purposes including drilling holes in a workpiece. An apparatus and method for drilling holes in a workpiece using a laser are described by LaPlante et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,168,454, which is incorporated herein by reference for its teachings on laser machining. As shown in FIG. 1, holes may be formed in a workpiece 55 by scanning a single beam along a first axis 62 and along a second axis 63. A rotating polygonal mirror 35 is used to scan the single beam along the first axis 62, and the workpiece may be translated using a translation table 61 to direct the beam along the second axis 63.